Portrait of a couple

This commission I started a while ago and is needed for a wedding in May this year so has been sitting on one of my easels and been added to bit by bit. Now the Christmas backlog has gone and I've found a corner in my cottage (albeit a temporary spot) in which to paint, I will be able to focus in earnest. I played around with the composition initially but ended up coming back to the original crop and angle of the photograph and sketched it onto the canvas board. The bottom half of the painting is going to remain loose and painterly and their faces painted with more definition. I started with the idea of dripping the paint on the bottom of the canvas but I wasn't happy with the result so blocked in more of their clothes than originally planned. The beauty of acrylic paints is that I can experiment with each paint layer until I get it right. Keep watching as the portrait is now at its worst phase and will only get better from here. When I teach portraiture, this is always the place where most students lose heart - first you create a drawing and finally get the features in the right place, then you 'kill the white' (as Rolf Harris puts it) by putting on your first layer of paint. With the shadows and base colours in place you start to apply more detail, changing your loosely painted but interesting abstract into a badly painted school project! I have learnt this is part of the process and a beautiful painting can be achieved if you push through the pain barrier at this point. I hope it doesn't prove me wrong on this one!!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to my blog and Happy New Year for 2013! This year has started full of promise - having moved into our gorgeous little thatched cottage just before Christmas I already have plans to update the kitchen and convert one of the outhouses into an art studio. New art classes are starting up, beginning with a 6-week Drawing Course in Storrington from Tuesday 15th January (see www.katesartclasses.com) and others are in the pipeline including watercolour and portraiture. I love meeting new people and it's exciting for me to see different people's unique expressions of their own artistic flair as well as having space to enjoy just being creative. I'm tutoring on the Pets Portrait Diploma Course for London Art College (see www.londonartcollege.co.uk) and am looking forward to helping new students develop their skills. I also have a number of commissions on the go despite losing my ranking on Google's listings late last year due to one of their algorithm changes (see www.portraitsofpeople.net). There's still a lot of work to do to get me visible again but the drop in the usual amount of Christmas commissions did enable us to move with a little less stress and we love our new place!! Wishing you creativity, health and happiness throughout 2013.